Outcomes of the COP-28 climate summit

Subject: Environment

Section: Climate change

Context:

The 28th Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC happened in Dubai, UAE this year.

Loss and Damage Fund:

The agreement was reached at COP-27 to create a ‘Loss and Damage’ (L&D) fund and the fund was operationalised at COP-28.
World Bank was designated to oversee and administer the fund.
Only a meagre $790 million has been pledged so far, by a few nations, despite the corpus requiring $100 billion to more than $400 billion a year.

Global stocktake:

The COP28 summit saw the first global stocktake (GST).
According to the UNFCCC, the GST enables countries and other stakeholders to see where they are collectively making progress towards meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement — and where they are not.
Countries at COP-28 decided to transition away from fossil fuels and also pledged to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. More than 20 countries also pledged to triple their nuclear energy capacity.
However, the transition from fossil fuels is restricted to energy systems alone; they can continue to be used in the plastics, transport, and agriculture sectors.
The declaration also refers to ‘transitional fuels’, such as natural gas, for ensuring energy security.
The declaration called for accelerated climate mitigation using carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon removal(CDR) technologies.

Green Finance:

Developed nations and private sectors are asked to take the lead in grant-oriented, concessional finance to enable equitable transition in developing countries.
COP28 saw the establishment of innovative global green finance mechanisms to support developing nations in their transition to sustainable practices. The Green Climate Fund received fresh support of $3.5 billion, allowing it to finance adaptation and mitigation projects in vulnerable regions.
An additional $188 million was pledged to the Adaptation Fund.

ALTERRA:

The COP-28 Presidency introduced ALTÉRRA, an investment initiative with an ambitious goal to globally mobilise an unprecedented sum of $250 billion by 2030.

How did India fare at COP-28?

UAE Declaration on Climate and Health:
- Partnership between COP-28 Presidency and WHO, recognizing health impacts of climate change.
- Acknowledges benefits of climate action, like reduced air pollution and healthcare costs.
- Signed by 123 countries committing $1 billion, but India didn’t sign it.
- Reason: Reducing GHG emissions in health sector could affect gases used for cooling, potentially compromising healthcare needs, especially in rural areas due to ongoing healthcare infrastructure growth.
Global Methane Pledge:
- GMP received attention at COP-28, with Climate and Clean Air Coalition as the new secretariat.
- Partners announced over $1 billion in new grants to reduce methane emissions in agriculture, waste, and gas sectors.
- 150+ countries signed the pledge, but India didn’t.
- Reason: It may shift focus from carbon dioxide to methane, a GHG with a shorter lifetime.
  - India’s methane emissions are primarily from rice cultivation and livestock rearing, crucial for small and marginal farmers’ livelihoods.
India abstained from both declarations due to concerns about compromising healthcare infrastructure growth and the focus shift to methane, which doesn’t align with its emissions profile dominated by agriculture and livestock-related methane emissions.

Key takeaways:

Acknowledgement of the role of nature-based solutions for biodiversity conservation and climate.
Some 134 countries also agreed to a landmark declaration to transition to sustainable and resilient food systems.

Challenges:

Dispute between developed and developing nations over fossil-fuel subsidies.
Increasing the flow of climate finance and technologies to facilitate just job transitions and inclusive development.
Market mechanisms, financial resource allocation, the role of the World Bank as the agency for managing the L&D fund, and private sector engagement in climate action.